Biography of Raymond F. Dutch

Raymond F. Dutch. Since September, 1903, the Chanute Business College had occupied a recognized position of importance among the institutions of commercial education in Southeastern Kansas, and each year had seen its scope broadening and its usefulness increasing. It is accomplishing good work in the training of young men and women to take their place in the business world, and many of its former pupils have already attained places of prominence in business circles. The present manager and proprietor of this institution is Raymond F. Dutch, who had had broad and varied experience both as an educator and in business life, and since becoming the head of the college he had added a number of departments designed to cover a broader field and to more thoroughly equip the students for competition in business and industrial circles.

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Mr. Dutch is a native son of Kansas and a product of the farm, having been born on his father’s farm in Wilson County, January 13, 1886, a son of A. F. and Sekunda (Ellison) Dutch. His grandfather, Peter Dutch, was born in Germany, in 1827, and was a young man when he came to the United States to better his fortunes, first settling near Kalamazoo, Michigan, and in 1879 locating in Kansas. He was a shoemaker by trade and followed that vocation for many years, but finally invested his capital in a Wilson County farm, on which he carried on operations during his latter years, and where he died in 1898. During the Civil war he enlisted in an Indian volunteer infantry regiment, with which he served during the greater part of the struggle between the North and the South. He belonged to the sturdy type of men of his race who are essentially homemakers, and in whatever community his activities were centered proved himself a good and useful citizen. Mr. Dutch married Miss Mary Kole, who was born in Germany, in 1830, and died in Wilson County, Kansas, in 1898, and of their children, the following are still living: A. F.; Henrietta, who is unmarried and resided at 915 West Main Street, Chanute, and Ed, who is a resident of Idaho.

A. F. Dutch was born in 1857, at Elkhart, Indiana, and there grew to manhood, receiving his education in the public schools. He was twenty-two years of age when he accompanied his parents to Wilson County, Kansas, and after working for his father for some time, purchased a farm of his own and for many years carried on agricultural pursuits. Through hard and persevering labor he developed a good and valuable property and was able to retire from business when still in the prime of life, so that he is now passing his later years in comfort at his home at 917 West Main Street, Chanute. Mr. Dutch inherited his father’s stable and energetic nature, and in his agricultural work displayed progress and practicality, so that his labors not alone advanced his own interests but also helped in the advancement of his community. He is a democrat, but not a politician, and belongs to the Anti Horse Thief Association. Mr. Dutch was married in Wilson County to Miss Sekunda Ellison, who was born in Ohio, in 1863, and to this union there were born two children, namely: Glenn F., who engaged in farming until his death at Chanute, in 1914; and Raymond F.

Raymond F. Dutch received his early education in the public schools of Wilson County, passing the summer months in work on his father’s farm. At the age of seventeen years he entered the Chanute Business College, from which he was graduated in 1905, and with this training readily secured a position with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, where for two years he worked as a stenographer. He left this position to become bookkeeper and stenographer for the Chanute Refining Company, but after one year went to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where he became principal of the Ouachita Business College. Mr. Dutch remained in this capacity until 1913, when he went to Little Rock, Arkansas, to accept a position as teacher in Draughon’s Business College, and remained there until the spring of 1916. With this experience, he returned to Chanute, where he purchased the Chanute Business College, of which he had since been the manager and proprietor. This college was established in September, 1903, by P. W. Errebo, and is situated in the old postoffice building, on the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Elm Street. Scholars come from a radius of seventy-five miles, from Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, and the school is rapidly becoming known as one of the most popular and efficient in the state. Mr. Dutch is admirably fitted to be the head of such an institution, takes a personal interest in each scholar, and keeps an eye on his graduates, helping them in every possible way to secure advantageous and congenial positions. His record is already one to which he can point with a pardonable degree of pride, and he is constantly endeavoring to add new advantages to his courses that will further equip the young people who have placed their business training in his hands. Mr. Dutch is a democrat, and is fraternally affiliated with Chanute Lodge, No. 688, Loyal Order of Moose. He resided at 501 North Steuben Avenue.

In 1906, at Chanute, Mr. Dutch was united in marriage with Miss Mary Ashcraft, daughter of A. W. and Ivy A. (Hurt) Ashcraft, both of whom are deceased. Mr. Ashcraft was for a number of years engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Chanute and one of this city’s leading citizens. Mr. and Mrs. Dutch have no children.